


Deliberate (January)

by Amalia Kensington (amaliak01)



Series: Home Sweet Holmes (2019 Calendar) [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Dancing, Early Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 06:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17319422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaliak01/pseuds/Amalia%20Kensington
Summary: Figure out what you want and then, do it on purpose.





	Deliberate (January)

“You wanted to see me?”

 

Her voice from the door momentarily took him back years (nearly a lifetime) ago and as he turned to face her, he saw the same open but wary look in her eyes.

 

But that’s the last time he thinks on it, sure in his step as he walks towards her with a soft smile.

 

“Yes.” He walks over to her with a sure step, kisses her cheek and smiles. Steps back with his hands behind his back. “Dinner!” His throat clears. “There’s dinner, if you’re hungry.”

 

Her smile is warm and she shucks off her coat. “Lovely! I assume there’s also an experiment?”

 

“Of sorts,” he starts to say but then thinks better of it. “No, no experiment. I’d like to...talk.”

 

Molly freezes on her way to the kitchen. Her hand grips the back of John’s chair, her back to him. “Please don’t, Sherlock. Can we...everything’s fine as it is, can we not...talk about this, please?”

 

He comes nearer closer to her until he’s nearly standing behind her. “Is it really fine, Molly?” he asks softy.

 

She takes a deep breath and turns around to face him, her shoulders back and chin high. “We said we would see where it lead, didn’t we? I thought we had agreed.”

 

Just weeks after Sherrinford, they had managed to address their mutual feelings for each other. Kisses were exchanged, forgiveness requested and given. That had now been almost three months ago.

 

“We did agree,” Sherlock acknowledged. “And I think now you have to further agree that it’s lead nowhere.”

 

He sees her swallow thickly. He was right, she knew it. After those first couple of days, they had both gotten busy, seeing each other as often as they could, texting daily, but...nothing more beyond what they might have been before those meaningful three minutes. In fact, in the last two weeks, they’d only been in the same room in a social scenario three times, each one not more than 30 minutes and usually accompanied by a Watson.

 

He’d been so preoccupied cleaning up the mess of his family and his own wrecked psyche that he hadn’t given much thought to Molly and their...situation. He’d spent the better part of two days thinking about it and after much deliberation, he came to a decision.  

 

“Molly, I’m tired of going nowhere, aren’t you? We’ve gone nowhere for years and I think it’s high time that was over. I recognize that a lot of that is my own fault. This past year has been…”

 

“Yes, I know,” she interrupted quietly, deflating and now looking at the carpet somewhere behind him.

 

“For both of us,” he went on.

 

“Yes.”

 

He could see the tears in her eyes and he felt panic begin to rise. This was going pear-shaped quickly. “What I seem to be failing to say, Molly Hooper is...would you like to dance?”

 

That snaps her eyes back to his in surprise. “What?”

 

A soft smile forms on his lips and he takes a small step back towards her. “I would like to dance with you.” He holds his hand out to her. “Would you do me the honor?”

 

She looks between him and his hand for a second and it takes everything in him to keep breathing normally, feeling more than ever that this was a crossroads. But, as always, Molly doesn’t disappoint him. She places her hand in his and he pulls her into his arms.

 

They sway together for a moment, Molly letting him lead her deeper into the sitting room, keeping their eyes locked together. “There’s no music, Sherlock.”

 

He raises a brow and glances around the room curiously. “Isn’t there?” His lips quirked into a smile that she matched, her small chuckle felt against his chest.

 

The continued to dance around the room for another few moments before Molly spoke up again. “Where are we going then, Sherlock?”

 

Sherlock looked down at the small woman in his arms, the hand he had around her back caressing her back lightly. “Forward, I hope my Molly. Very _deliberately_ forward, which seems to be the point we haven’t managed to do thus far. Do you agree?”

 

She took a deep breath and released it slowly with a nod. “Yes. You’re right.” She bit her lower lip and it nearly distracted him from his point. “Any idea as to how to do that, exactly?”

 

He released his own sigh. “I’ll admit that...I may be at a bit of a loss.”

 

Molly nodded and while her face showed deep concentration, he felt her body relax a little more against him, their dance slowing down to swaying. “Well,” she began slowly. “If we’re meant to do this more... _deliberately_ , as you said, then maybe we lay out the next steps?”

 

His brow quirks. “Experiment?”

 

“More like procedure, maybe?” she replies.

 

“Dating, engagement, marriage, family?” he rattles off, his head tilting a bit with a lifting of his brows.

 

Her eyes sparkle in a little obvious amusement at his straightforward and just very... _Sherlock_ description. “More or less. Maybe with more interesting things in between?”

 

Sherlock smiled at that, pulling her closer. “I like ‘more interesting’. Perhaps less dating since it predicates on the idea of getting to know one another and since you and I probably know more about each other than most couples just starting romantic entanglements, perhaps we can skip a step?”

 

Molly blushed a little even as she chuckled. “How about we dance a little more, have dinner, and you call me tomorrow so that we can have coffee after work?”

 

“And then spend every possible moment together?”

 

“Hmmm, perhaps not every moment, but we can make plans for lot more, if you’d like.”

 

“I would like that.”

 

“But before all of that, I really would like for you to kiss me."

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is only the beginning. Featured art was on my 2019 calendar, for the January entry. Big thanks to writingwife83 for all her help and cheerleading!


End file.
